Monday, December 9, 2013

Planning to hold off on job searching until January? Think employers don’t hire during the holiday months? You’re mistaken if you believe companies quit looking for talent this time of year.

While plenty of people start to back off on job searching in November and December, you can benefit from continuing to put time and effort into your hunt for a great opportunity. Consider these five significant reasons you’ll miss out (big time) if you freeze your job search during the holidays:

1. Employers Are (Still!) Hiring

Just like any other part of the business, hiring still goes on late in the year. Operations, mergers, production, orders, service, buyouts, and projects are always running in most companies.

In fact, some industries may even have more significant needs during the holiday season, as major transactions and deals are often negotiated during what others might consider downtime.

Back in my IT management and recruiting days, we focused more on January projects and planning for resource needs than holiday vacations.

If your expertise includes acquisitions, sales, manufacturing oversight, or technology automation, you could be in particularly high demand as a skilled leader or executive (even more so at this time of year).

2. Budget Requirements Must Be Met

Both end-of-year budgets and new-year headcount forecasting can drive hiring during the holiday season.

For example, a company may have just received approval to hire a new Director of IT in January. When will they most likely start the hiring cycle? December.

The typical hiring cycle for an executive can take weeks, if not months. Employers anticipating the need for new sales leaders, for example, may need to initiate their hiring process by the end of the year to get a new hire onboarded by February.

Therefore, sending your newly polished leadership resume out to companies of interest to you can pay off quickly, especially if they’re in a hiring cycle and you’re the most qualified –and interested – applicant.